Brent Kawamura's path to sustainability wasn't a straight line — it started with an Environmental Science degree, wound through LEED-certified building projects, and landed him in Product Sustainability at REI. Along the way, fishing has remained the thread that keeps it all grounded.

In this episode, host Rick Crawford — founder of Emerger Strategies, a sustainability consulting firm serving fishing and outdoor brands — sits down with Brent to pull back the curtain on REI's Product Impact Standards and explore why the retail giant is pushing its brand partners to cut their carbon footprint. They dig into how customer demand is reshaping the shelf — with shoppers increasingly seeking out products carrying The Climate Label, Fair Trade certification, and other preferred attributes — and what that shift means for brands trying to keep pace.

They also step away from sustainable business and onto the water, talking about the responsibility anglers carry to understand the history of the places we fish, and how the choices we make ripple out to affect those fisheries for the long haul.

If your brand is aiming to land a spot on REI's shelves, this episode is a must-listen — packed with insight into what REI is actually looking for from its partners.

In this episode:

• Brent Kawamura's journey from Environmental Science to LEED buildings to REI Product Sustainability
• REI Impact Report findings
• What REI's Product Impact Standards require from brand partners
• Why REI is pushing suppliers to reduce carbon footprint
• How consumer demand for The Climate Label, Fair Trade, and other preferred attributes is reshaping retail
• What brands need to know to get their products on REI's shelves
• An angler's responsibility to understand fishery history and protect the places we fish

Sponsors:

This episode is brought you by: A New Earth Project, the sustainability initiative of Atlantic Packaging, Emerger Strategies, and Ecolytics (don't forget to mention The Sustainable Angler for a discount off your first year's subscription!)

🎣 Like what you heard?

Subscribe to The Sustainable Angler wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review to help us grow the conversation around sustainable business in the fishing and outdoor industries.

For more resources, or to learn how Emerger Strategies can help your brand turn sustainability into a competitive advantage by making it simple, strategic, and profitable, visit www.emergerstrategies.com.

Follow us on Instagram @emergerstrategies and @thesustainableangler and stay tuned for more insights from leaders at the intersection of conservation, business, and the outdoors.

In this episode, host and Emerger Strategies founder Rick Crawford sits down with Riverhorse Nakadate — angler, surfer, writer, musician, adventurer, and a friend.

In this conversation, Riverhorse states that "books are magic portals that can take us to far-away places" — and after reading his new book, Water Lines: A Life on Marshes, Rivers, Seas, and in the Rain, you'll understand why. He shares rowdy, hilarious stories from a life spent wandering the salt marshes and coastlines of Texas, Colorado's alpine lakes, the Oregon and California shores, Minnesota's Boundary Waters, the Yucatán mangroves, the Arctic Circle, Africa, and Montana's spring creeks.

You'll hear about the five-year journey to getting Water Lines published with Patagonia Books, the Boundary Waters debacle, and how Mexican drug cartels forced local fishermen into illegal long-lining in Texas waters. You'll also discover how music, surfing, fly fishing, and writing help Riverhorse make sense of the world — all of it interconnected by water — and dig into the miracle of wilderness and life, and much more.

Hit play and get ready for a story that'll make you want to grab your rod, your journal, or both.

Hope you enjoy!

Sponsors:

This episode is brought you by: A New Earth Project, the sustainability initiative of Atlantic Packaging, Emerger Strategies, and Ecolytics (don't forget to mention The Sustainable Angler for a discount off your first year's subscription!)

🎣 Like what you heard?

Subscribe to The Sustainable Angler wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review to help us grow the conversation around sustainable business in the fishing and outdoor industries.

For more resources, or to learn how Emerger Strategies can help your brand turn sustainability into a competitive advantage by making it simple, strategic, and profitable, visit www.emergerstrategies.com.

Follow us on Instagram @emergerstrategies and @thesustainableangler and stay tuned for more insights from leaders at the intersection of conservation, business, and the outdoors.

Kevin Myette has one of the most storied careers in outdoor industry sustainability — and he's not done yet. In this episode, host and Emerger Strategies founder Rick Crawford sits down with Kevin, who is a 40-year outdoor industry veteran to trace the arc of sustainability from a grassroots conversation at Outdoor Retailer in 2006 all the way to the global frameworks shaping how brands operate today through his work at Bluesign.

Kevin was part of the early effort at REI to get competing brands to collaborate on sustainability — a movement that grew into the Sustainability Working Group at the Outdoor Industry Association, then the ECO Index, then the Higg Index, and ultimately the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (now known as Cascale). He walks us through how that history unfolded and what it means for brands navigating sustainability today.

The conversation goes deep on supply chain transparency — specifically why Tier 2 suppliers (the mills and dye houses most brands have never visited) represent the single most impactful stage in a product's lifecycle. Kevin makes the case that if you don't know your supply chain, you don't know your impact.

He also drops a truth bomb that might surprise you: apparel made from recycled plastic bottles may actually be worse for the environment than it appears — and how "packaging is the gateway drug for sustainability.

At Bluesign, Kevin works to verify chemical and material integrity across value chains — ensuring that what goes into a product is safe, responsibly sourced, and certified Bluesign Approved. And throughout all of it, he makes a compelling argument that the outdoor industry has been using the wrong word all along: this isn't "sustainability." It's business excellence.

If you care about what's actually inside the products you make, sell, or buy — this episode is essential listening.

Topics covered:
Supply chain transparency · Bluesign certification · Tier 2 suppliers and dyeing processes · History of sustainability in the outdoor industry · Outdoor Retailer 2006 · Sustainable Apparel Coalition / Cascale · Higg Index · ECO Index · Recycled polyester greenwashing · Packaging as a sustainability entry point · Business excellence vs. sustainability branding

Sponsors:

This episode is brought you by: A New Earth Project, the sustainability initiative of Atlantic Packaging, Emerger Strategies, and Ecolytics (don't forget to mention The Sustainable Angler for a discount off your first year's subscription!)

🎣 Like what you heard?

Subscribe to The Sustainable Angler wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review to help us grow the conversation around sustainable business in the fishing and outdoor industries.

For more resources, or to learn how Emerger Strategies can help your brand turn sustainability into a competitive advantage by making it simple, strategic, and profitable, visit www.emergerstrategies.com.

Follow us on Instagram @emergerstrategies and @thesustainableangler and stay tuned for more insights from leaders at the intersection of conservation, business, and the outdoors.